Congratulations on the Repeal of the 8th

In the celebration of today’s results, the Scottish Secular Society congratulates Ireland on today’s result after an incredible campaign for repeal, and hope it heralds a more compassionate healthcare system for Irish women. As the bishops and other reactionaries repeated apocalyptic ramblings of “murdered babies” and social collapse, the Irish people have turned their sympathies towards those who should not have needed to have fought for such a choice.

Since the 40s the Catholic Church in Ireland has used women’s bodies and a denial of their autonomy as a string on which to draw political influence, sourced from a fear that independent thought might threaten it. A women’s religious identity needn’t be at odds with her own body, and now only Northern Ireland continues this oppression on the British and Irish archipelago. Therefore, the Scottish Secular Society congratulates those who have endeavoured in this long struggle: from the Women of Ireland who smuggled in contraceptives since the 70s, to the families torn apart from a needlessly imposed toil, to today’s successful campaigners.